Let’s Ban Fear

When you see store shelves stripped bare, deliveries to super markets hit or miss, businesses closed, the nation at a partial standstill, you start to see what panic is, not just in America, but elsewhere too.

And when you see a priest give up his ventilator to another, health care workers working all hours to save lives, and countless other examples of generosity and caring, you see the flip side of panic. You see humanity at its best.

Right now there isn’t enough humanity, but there is too much panic.

And panic is being fueled by an irresponsible press writing outrageous and inaccurate headlines, harassing the President when he is doing what he can to calm the situation and providing what assistance he can, not just to people directly, or to fill health care needs, but trying to save the economy from collapse.

Then you have cheap politicians like Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, who makes utterly baseless complaints that the Federal government isn’t helping the city. And he gets away with it, because the press blasts it on its trumpet, and people start to believe the nonsense, which is the best that it can be called.

Panic is the enemy of the American people.

Yet many people are scared, truly scared, even though the mortality and infection rates from Coronavirus are far below a normal flu epidemic.

Take a look at the undeservedly popular and totally irresponsible Drudge Report if you want to know what generates panic. It is more sickening than the disease.

Here is a proposal.

(1) don’t read your newspaper –use it for old fish or just throw it in the bin (the recycling one, of course)

(2) stop listening to the trash on social media, where myriad spiteful people fill the space with insidious claims and statements

(3) don’t believe anything you might hear about “THE CRISIS” because most of it isn’t true and is only designed to make you feel lousy and fearful

(4) only watch re-runs on TV, not talking heads that just are trying to spook you and your family

(5) keep in mind this is not a real WAR. There is no WAR. There is an EFFORT to contain a virus in order to keep health facilities capable of rendering assistance

(6) unless there is a really compelling reason, trust that the government is trying its best to be helpful.

Speaking only for myself, I like what President Donald Trump is doing. I think he is light years ahead of many of his advisors, and despite the deeply antagonistic, nasty, and hostile press, he has not flinched or drawn back. His courage is remarkable.

The President’s desire to aid the American people, especially working families and those who need assistance, is quite unprecedented. It illustrates clearly the difference between a narrow minded stupid partisanship and someone who wants to do good for the country. That’s one of the reasons why Nancy Pelosi, one of the worst and most evil politicians in the world, tried to destroy what Trump was doing by loading a relief bill with tons of unwanted garbage, including pay raises for House members. She should resign, because she is hurting America.

If we can shake off the fear being generated by our enemies, we will win.

President Franklin Roosevelt put it best when he said: “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror…“

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Stephen Bryen Leading technologist policy expert and strategist

Dr. Stephen Bryen is the author of the new book, "Technology Security and National Power: Winners and Losers" (Transaction Publishers).
Dr. Stephen Bryen has 40 years of leadership in government and industry. He has served as a senior staff director of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Trade Security Policy, as the founder and first director of the Defense Technology Security Administration, as the President of Delta Tech Inc., as the President of Finmeccanica North America, and as a Commissioner of the U.S. China Security Review Commission. Dr. Bryen's expertise and high effectiveness has earned him the highest civilian awards of the U.S. Defense Department on two occasions and established him as a proven government, civic and business leader in Washington D.C. and internationally. Dr. Bryen is regarded as a thought leader on technology security policy.

Technology Security and National Power: Winners and Losers

In Technology Security and National Power: Winners and Losers Stephen Bryen shows how the United States has squandered its technological leadership through unwise policies. Starting from biblical times, he shows how technology has either increased national power or led to military and political catastrophe. He goes on to show how the US has eroded its technological advantages, endangering its own security.

Disclaimer: My expertise is strategy. I focus on policy and how to implement plans and programs and how to manage outcomes.
I have had four wonderful careers: in government as a senior official; in industry as a President and CEO; as an entrepreneur in launching new ideas and new businesses; and as an author who regularly publishes in the area of international affairs and cybersecurity. And before all the above happened I was a Professor and pioneer in cybernetics in the social sciences at Lehigh University.